


Standstill

by kaeorin



Series: Loki's Lullabies [41]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Affection, Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Morning Cuddles, Sharing a Bed, Tickling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:21:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24031213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaeorin/pseuds/kaeorin
Summary: All too often, the world feels like it’s come to a standstill. It’s not always a bad thing.
Relationships: Loki (Marvel)/Reader
Series: Loki's Lullabies [41]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678240
Comments: 9
Kudos: 147





	Standstill

Too much of the time lately, you felt like you were frozen. It wasn’t really a temperature thing: the sun outside was golden and warm most days, and when you opened the windows to let the breeze in, it was always warm and delicious. But time seemed frozen. The world had ground to a stop. Everyone was doing their best to keep things moving, and of course the sun rose and set as usual, but there was just a sense of...stagnancy. Maybe time had stopped years ago, during the Battle of New York, and all of this was just the collective hallucinations of the human race as it drifted off.

But maybe all of that was a little grim for early Saturday morning. This was maybe the one place you didn’t miss the press of time. Tucked safely in Loki’s arms, sharing each other’s warmth under the same blanket. Sunlight was streaming in the windows, muted and blocked a bit by your curtains, but still lovely. It often felt like this could last forever. This. Here. Loki’s arm was flung around your waist and you could feel him snoring softly against the back of your head. Both of you had drifted off in the nude last night, so his skin pressed to yours without the barriers of clothing.

He was always a little warmer than you’d expected him to be, given that he was a Frost Giant, but at times like these, you only ever appreciated that. You arched backwards against him to relish the contact, but gently, so you wouldn’t wake him. You’d grown up with cats, so you couldn’t help but associate bellies with vulnerability. You loved that he curled into you like this, that he let you touch and protect his vulnerable parts. 

You trailed your hand down his arm, tracing long patterns into his skin. When you reached his hand, you studied the shapes of his fingers. Long and elegant, they had a way of making you a little bit weak in the knees. You loved his hands. He was strong, and powerful, and capable of wreaking havoc with barely the twitch of a finger, but he could also summon goosebumps in your skin simply by touching you. There was warmth in his touch, and love, and tenderness, and it felt like yet another sign of trust that he let you feel such things when he touched you. You could only hope that you returned the favor when you touched him. You rested your hand on top of his, curling your fingers through his so you could caress his palm. He stirred a little, breathing long and warm through your hair and squeezing your hand.

If he were awake, you might like to raise his hand to yours and press soft kisses to each of his fingers. Sometimes you liked to kiss his palm over and over again, and then close his hand around it as though a kiss were something he could hold. There was just something...sensual about the palm of a person’s hand. Especially Loki’s. You liked being able to feel the lines of his palm, like you could read his future with your lips. He could so easily use his hand to push your head away, even playfully, but he always held still for you. He kept his hand open, flat. Waiting. He looked at you like he was hypnotized, sometimes, and that always made your lips curl as you kissed him a little bit harder.

You let your fingers drift back up his arm, pausing at his wrist. You loved the bones of his wrist, how they pressed through his skin, how sometimes they moved under your touch when he was awake. Maybe feeling his bones like that reminded you that he was solid, instead of a pleasant little figment of your imagination. Sometimes, depending on how he held his arm, you could see his veins popping through, could trace your fingertips gently along their slightly-erratic path and will all of your gratitude into them for carrying life through his body. 

His fingers twitched. When you paused in what you were doing, he gave a sigh that sounded almost like a growl and tucked his hand a little more snugly around you. You drew your hand back, but it was too late. He wriggled his fingers against your side, forcing you to try not to squirm too hard against him or laugh too loudly. But he didn’t stop.

“That tickles,” he rumbled warmly in your ear. When you didn’t respond, he drew your earlobe between his teeth and bit down, but of course not so hard as to hurt you. You could only laugh, though now there was an edge of something else in the sound, and reach up to comb your fingers through his hair.

“I can’t help it,” you protested. “Your body is perfect. You’re gorgeous. How can I _not_ want to touch you?” If you could, meaning if he would stand it or even believe it, you would spend days complimenting him. Every single thing about him seemed as though it had been specifically crafted to drive you crazy with hunger. In these strange, stilted days, you often had trouble keeping your hands off of him. It wasn’t always a sexual thing, either: you just wanted to touch him. He was like a sculpture in a museum behind silk ropes, except living and breathing and sharing his warmth.

“You can touch. Just not so gently.” He wriggled his fingers again, and you twitched and laughed, but then he smoothed his hand up your ribcage, easing away the ticklish feeling and calling forth the goosebumps. You couldn’t help but sigh, and there was just enough sound in it to make it like a moan. You could feel Loki smirk behind you. 

“Okay, I get it.” It was part promise, part plea. He took pity on you and hugged you still closer, and then lowered his mouth to kiss your shoulder. How did you ever get this lucky? You’d pondered the thought aloud a few times in the past, but Loki never had an answer. Instead, he always turned the question around on you, often rolling you onto your back so he could stretch out above you and hold your face in his palms.

For all his hunger and demands, he could also kiss so delicately. His lips could be flames, tearing along your body, devouring you with little thought other than what he wanted, but they could also be the moonlight. Gentle and mysterious and caressing. It truly wasn’t hard to see why he had inspired the myths you’d heard.

You turned around to face him so you could cup his face in your hands. He let you. His eyes were soft and loving. What was it about this bed, this apartment, that let him feel safe enough to look at you like that? It was like you _needed_ to know that, so you could make sure you always kept it around. You drew your thumbs along those elegant cheekbones. All this...he was yours. 

“You are beautiful in the morning light, my love.” With past lovers, something like that might have made you pull away and try to hide, but with Loki, you could believe it. You smiled at him in thanks, but then let your brows knit together as though in annoyance.

“That’s my line,” you said fiercely. “I was just about to say it, too. _Now_ what am I supposed to tell you? That I love you?”

He smiled wide, clearly happy to play along, but then growled and rushed forward to kiss you. He held you tightly even as he stole your breath, pushing you backwards so that you were lying flat on the mattress and he could stretch out above you. When he broke the kiss, he dragged his teeth along your lower lip, and you moaned again. “I was faster, darling. What are you going to do about it?”

You spent hours together, each trying to wrest away the other’s power, fighting with lips and teeth and bodies. The sunlight remained golden outside. Time stood still in deference to your affections.


End file.
